Photos: Who’s my father? Australia law ID’s once-secret sperm donors

Aug 03, 2018 11:43 IST

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Peter Peacock (L), 68, and Gypsy Diamond, 36, pose for a portrait after an interview with The Associated Press, in Melbourne, Australia. Peacock, who donated sperm anonymously around 1980, was recently contacted by Diamond, his biological daughter, after a new law in Australia retroactively removed the anonymity granted to sperm donors decades ago. (Wong Maye-E / AP)

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“Dear Mr Peacock,” the letter began. “The Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority (VARTA) has received an enquiry of a personal nature which may or may not relate to you. The matter concerns a record held in relation to a project you may have assisted with at Prince Henry’s Institute.” There could be only one reason, he thought. Someone out there had come to life through his donation 40 years ago. (Wong Maye-E / AP)

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Peter Peacock with his elder daughter Melanie in 1979. Peacock’s mind raced. How would he break it to his two grown daughters? And how could this person even know who he was? He had been promised that his donation would be anonymous. A week later, he found himself staring at a photograph of a woman named Gypsy Diamond, whose face looked so much like his own that he felt an instant and overwhelming connection. (Courtesy Peter Peacock via AP)

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An embryologist places a sperm sample onto a counting chamber at Melbourne IVF. VARTA is at the epicentre of Victoria state’s donor identity law, a piece of legislation dissected and debated for years before taking effect in 2017. Behind it all was a quest for the truth by people whose lives began in a lab in an era where the sperm and egg donation industry was swathed in secrecy. (Wong Maye-E / AP)

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The result, for some of those children, was a deep desire to complete the puzzle of their identity. Recognition of their rights has grown, much like the generally accepted view that adopted children should have the right to know birth parents. Some countries, including Australia, have banned anonymous donation. But Victoria is only the second jurisdiction in the world after Switzerland to retroactively strip anonymity without donor consent. (Wong Maye-E / AP)

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Peter Peacock looks at a photograph of his parents carrying his firstborn in 1978. The truth about Diamond’s origins unraveled on the day of her grandfather’s funeral. Her parents were separating, and emotions were raw. Diamond, then 21, learnt from her mother Sue that her father was not her biological parent. Diamond fell back, stunned. Had there been a scandal? she asked. No, Sue replied. There had been a sperm donor. (Wong Maye-E / AP)

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For awhile, she struggled to reconcile the information with who she was. The curiosity about her heritage gnawed at her but little information was legally available. Four more years would pass before the law took effect. And then one day in April 2017, her phone rang. It was Kate Bourne, a counselor at VARTA. “Are you sitting down?” Bourne asked. “I’ve just got off the phone to your donor.” (Wong Maye-E / AP)

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After nearly a year of emotional emails, and learning meanwhile that Peacock’s donation had been used in the birth of her brother and 14 other children, the two finally met at a car show in March 2018. Diamond arrived with her family, verging on panic. Heart pounding, she jumped out of the car and went hunting for Peacock. He looked up and saw her. He grinned. She grinned back. They swept each other into a hug. (Courtesy Peter Peacock via AP)

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The tension leached from Diamond’s body. Peacock’s own nervousness somehow soothed her. They looked at each other for a little while, dumbfounded, then began chatting like old chums. “You want a drink?” Peacock asked, beckoning her to the trunk of his car, where he’d smuggled in a thermos of Shiraz. They settled down to talk. It all felt so natural. (Wong Maye-E / AP)

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Months since, Peacock still wrestles with how he should feel. He has such love for this woman he was never supposed to know. Yet he is wary of overstepping boundaries. “I’m not her father, I’m not her uncle, but I’m still part of her. ... She is a part of me.” He raises a toast: “Cheers ... Girl? Daughter? It?” “Whatever it is,” Diamond says with a laugh. And they drink. (Wong Maye-E / AP)

about the gallery

For years, sperm and egg donors in the Australian state of Victoria were promised anonymity. Doctors assured them that any children created with their donations would never know who they were. That all changed when Victoria passed a law giving the offspring of donors the legal right to know their donors' identities. The law took effect in 2017 and is a result of lobbying by children who were born to anonymous donors. Some wanted to know their donors so they could get their medical history. Others just wanted to complete the puzzle of their identity.